Barack Obama launched his campaign in unspectacular fashion today at Ohio State University, the largest college in the crucial swing state. A photoposted to twitter by Mitt Romney's campaign spokesman Ryan Williams reveals sparse attendance. The above image, according to Williams, was taken during the President's first official campaign speech.

According to the Toledo Blade, the venue for Obama's rally seats 20,000 but "there were a lot of empty seats." Comparatively, Obama drew a crowd of 35,000 at Ohio State when he campaigned for former Governor Ted Strickland in 2010.

The official Barack Obama Tumblr boasts a figure from ThinkProgress that 14,000 attended the event--70% of the stadium's seating capacity.

It's a campaign faux pas to hold an event in a room that isn't full; to promise the media a more-than-capacity crowd then fall this far short of that promise is utter incompetence. In 2008, Obama ran a near-flawless campaign, buoyed by enthusiasm and effective organizing. But it's not 2008 any more, and on day one of the 2012 campaign, Team Obama has already made an embarrassing blunder.

Now compare that with Ron Paul's events, where he completely fills every event until it overflows with people. Check out his UCLA rally, the stadium was completely filled with people even sitting on the stairs and there were still people waiting outside in the parking lot and hanging in trees to see. It was a beautiful sight.

At the very least, his influence will be great enough that Obama or Romney would fight for his support in their campaign. Assuming he accepted on his own terms (which is unlikely since Paul wants to run an "all or nothing" campaign), there might be hope for America still with Paul calling the shots :)

Teri....I feel ya but the media is never going to accurately depict Ron Paul support! In their minds there are two parties and you know who they really favor. That Dr. Paul cannot get the nomination by one of the two corrupt major parties justifies that in their minds!

What he stands for now needs more voices from the like of Peter Schiff & Judge Napolitano!

Interesting that he's making a big play for college kids that are being hurt the worst with his miserable economy.
Loved it when he wheeled out the "hope & change" line again. It worked so well in term one, right?

The amateur hour of the administration/campaign mandate for insurance coverage for contraception, Sandra Fluke, "GOP's War On Women" with the attack on Ann Romney, and now "Life Of Julia" is dumbfounding. If that is how things are gonna go, the Obama machine may as well get right to rolling out the phony economic recovery they are going to tout, and the divide everyone game they are going to play.

The enthusiasm for Obama is just not there. Sure the media has plenty of supporters, and some of the most vocal people on the left are supporters, and they all can make a lot of noise, and blow a lot of smoke, but they can not fill an arena.

The Wonderful Wizard of Hope and Change's promises are now reality, and the majority of people are not digging it one bit; Marxism good for theory, bad for reality. I could have told them that, but some people must live and learn, wisdom does not come easy for them. They are a little bit wiser now, and get the whole Change thing now.

Which is exactly what happened to Mitt Romney a few months ago. Except the stadium was more like 90% empty. Am I missing something here? Or are you just looking really hard for ways to make Obama look bad?

Perhaps Incumbent in his 2008 campaign was just an empty suit promising nothing more than Hope and Change. Here we are in 2012 and Candidate is still an empty suit and there has been no Change(except for the worst) and Hope is fading. Maybe, just maybe, some of the students of OSU have done something constructive with their time... studying.